December 22, 2013 5:41 pm

Just back from a quickly emptying Seahawks lockerroom. Some quick notes before I write my stories:

> Doug Baldwin said the final pass hit his arm and the ground, basically in a simultaneous action. Here’s what referee Scott Green said about the call: “We didn’t have indisputable evidence that it hit the ground and therefore we went with the call as it was made on the field, which was an interception.”

> Baldwin also said he had a hard time figuring out coverages from the Cardinals. Said they changed scheme dramatically from the first game.

> Russell Wilson said the offense was off “just a hair” all day. He kept consistent with his answers, saying next week is a championship week, you can only control what you can control, etc. He said was getting good looks at the coverage and didn’t have any problems deciphering what Arizona was doing, but the Seahawks just didn’t make plays today.

> Robert Turbin was still upset after the game about his fumbling. “Bad ball-handling on my part,” Turbin said. “Bounced off of my knee and I fumbled it.”

Turbin says he hasn’t had fumble issues before.

“That’s why I am so disappointed about it. I’m just so in tune with the ball. Whenever I run the ball, my main focus is the ball before anything else. There’s other parts of running the ball like going through your reads and making guys miss … but, the most important thing is the ball. It’s just surprising to me that it happened.”

Pete Carroll popped into the lockerroom after his press conference to ask Turbin what happened and give him some encouraging words.

> Earl Thomas said he’s not worried about losing late leads twice in the last three weeks.

“I’m not concerned because you can’t dwell on it, all you can do is move on,” Thomas said. “I still think we had a great game overall on defense.”

> Russell Okung hurt his toe and Jermaine Kearse has a sore ankle. Same to as before for Okung, who left the game but returned.

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

Todd, had the chance to hear you on 950 KJR this week. You are one salty dude. But funny at the same time.

Dammit. That was one frustrating loss. Kept turning to Ed, the dude that sits next to me in section 334Z, and saying “we should be winning by two touchdowns right now”. Hard to explain. Hate to say this, but a healthy P Harvin and we take that game away in the 3rd quarter.

Lose next Sunday and we blow the season. Period! All those penalties finally caught up with us in a close game this week. You can’t make idiotic penalties over and over in the playoffs. Okay, Deep Breath.
Okay, I like Turbin as an RB but whose bright idea was it to make him the KO returner????? C’mon Man!

Here’s what referee Scott Green said about the call: “We didn’t have indisputable evidence that it hit the ground and therefore we went with the call as it was made on the field, which was an interception.”

This totally pisses me off – for a few reasons.

From the stands here is what we saw –

1. That is the exact OPPOSITE of what he said on the field. the ball hit the receivers arm – bounced in the air and was intercepted. that is NOT Play “stands” meaning what they didn’t have enough information

2. It was ruled INC on the field then 2 other officials came in and talked about it with the white hat – AFTER being nagged by the Cardinal DB’s At the end of the conference they guy who originally called it INC – (the closest official BTW) Walked away from the huddle and signaled INC. and stopped when white hat call INT.

3. The guys that made the call were no where near enough to see if it hit the WR or not – they were not sure and talked themselves into an INT (or were talked into it)

Good God, Hawk fan since the 70s but I’ve never seen such a disappointing performance. Honestly, this team is not as good, I think, as the 84 team. And truly, I think I’d rather have Krieg than Wilson some times. He is not worth elite QB dollars…if it comes to that. But mostly, we need an OL desperately…tackle to tackle, they are sub-standard.

Just not a Super Bowl calibre team right now…on offense. The defense is elite…the offense is very very sub-standard. When even just standard would do.

We are, today, no better than the third best team in our division. The 49ers would defeat us regardless of where the game is played. They are better coached and they have better players top to bottom, including a better QB, today.

WOW – people can’t express frustrations without jumping off of the band wagon . . . . . . . . good god people. We played poorly today – should have won DIDN”T people have the right to vent!!

We do need to play better if we expect to win in the play-offs. I believe we will play better next week and on into the play-offs – today, not so much. From the stands I didn’t see much drive or execution on the field.

Danielle, don’t be so full your fandom. People have every right to call it as they see it.

This is not….today…a Super Bowl calibre team. The defense is elite, the offense is ridiculous…ridiculously bad.

Arizona…from the coaching staff down…schooled them. We are not as good as anyone here thought them to be. Not even close. Our quarterback is NOT elite, our offensive line is amongst the worst in the NFL and our skill players…without Harvin…are not difference makers. So get over it. We are not as well-coached or as complete a team as the 49ers…maybe not even the Cardinals. First you must identify your shortcomings before you can correct them. We are not there yet…the past six weeks are evidence of that.

The only problem I see on offense is the same problem we had in May. There are not enough targets for our franchise QB to deliver the ball to. It’s time for Harvin to get it going. Hats off to the Cards. Their D out played our Offense. Our WR corps are beyond thin. I’d expect a 1st RD pick used on a WR. But for now, it’s every man up…maybe Sherman can go both ways.

I went back and watched the limited replay angles we have in terms of how open the WRs are. Is Wilson not seeing the field or are the WRs just not getting open?

My limited conclusion is they just aren’t getting open. Losing the 2012 version of Rice and not having Harvin has killed the Offense. Tate, Baldwin and Kearse are 2s and 3s at best. They are most successful when Wilson can buy time and when the team has a dominant running game.

The issue is further compounded because Lynch is just not what he was last year. I don’t know if he’s hurt or has just fallen off a cliff. Or maybe last year was an aberration (statically it was). When the end comes for a RB like Lynch, it will come quickly and without warning.

I think the problems with the offense start with the run game. How many times have we heard this is a run first team… Most teams will have at least 1 to 2 nice runs a game but for some reason we have trouble picking up more than 2 to 3 yards. Our run game seemed to be better when everyone was hurt.

Vegas56, you say you are a hawks fan for 30 years, your comments suggest you might not even be 30 years old. All teams lay eggs, all elite QB’s look bad at times. You are overreacting and over generalizing the teams issues. All teams and players have a range of how they play. Good bad and ugly

For everyone who has been watching this team all year…we have seen them play at their ceiling…nobody can beat them. They also play up to the moment or down… Lets see how they play next week in a do or die scenario. The comments about Kap>Wilson are laughable based on one game. Nobody is making that argument not even San Fran fans, so why would somebody on this board make it without any supporting facts…

For some reason, I believe this team will bounce back with its backs to the wall. Am I worried? Yes. However, I think they can/will still do it.

Wilson needs to make sure there are ZERO more delay of game penalties, Bowie needs to stay at RG, and even though I think the team has played hard at SF and today – I think the 49ers and Cards played just a tad bit harder because they knew how much more important their games were to them than it was for the Hawks. Our boys now have their (our) backs to the wall in terms of winning the division and home field.

Every fan has a right to be mad about the game today, however. No fan has a right to tell another fan how they should feel after a tough loss.

With that being said, the Ravens got hammered by the Broncos last year in Baltimore on December 16 and here is what was being said after that game from ESPN.com

MemberNameRequested
What a beat down by Denver today. Hopefully Dallas can pull one off and I’ll only have to watch three more miserable Ravens games before our season is over.

CQRaven
Bench Flacco for the next game, or at least to begin the game. Start Tyrod. Joe needs to sit and reflect awhile. As an offense right now- or lack there of- we have nothing to lose !

fatboy250250
HARBS MUST GO!!!

RIP Ravens 12-16-16
Honestly the Ravens are fortunate to have 9 wins they should of lost to Leftwich and the Chargers, oh well, they are not going far anyway.

This one from, I think, a Steelers fan on the chat:

macterps00
Congrats? That’s your sarcastic comment after they absolutely SMOKED your beloved ravens on their home field?? Wow…..Hey at least you probably believe that they can still do some damage in the playoffs right?? Delusional Ravens fans are the best

As we all know, fans have a tendency to think they root for the worst team in history with any kind of loss and that they could beat the ’72 Dolphins 100-0 after any win. That’s the way it goes.

The only thing that matters is that our guys dig in deep and come out with everything they’ve got. If they do, I think there’s a good chance they win the Lombardi in a few months!

This team has survived on an elite defense and the ability to beat lesser teams…sometimes (as with TB and STL earlier in year) by the barest of margins. That’s not terribly unusual, all good teams win when not playing at peak, a lot. Our team has laid plenty of eggs this and is still 12-3. But there are serious, definite signs that things are not as sanguine as the record shows.

So you think the Kap-Wilson comments are laughable? Really? And YOU question me? Really? Kap damn nearly won a Super Bowl. He’s 1-2 against Wilson, true, but two of those were in Seattle. The last one, he outplayed Wilson. Do you think he’s leading his team now, at the end of the season, in an inferior way to Wilson’s performance? The 49ers are a better team today…top to bottom. Don’t believe me? Watch them beat Arizona next week,,,in Arizona…then come back and talk. Kap gets the credit for how his team is playing just like Wilson got the credit against New Orleans or New York. And SF is better than we are today. So don’t talk about how my Kap-Wilson comments are ridiculous…let’s just let the season play out and see what is going to happen before deciding what is laughable.

Golden Tate bugs the hell outta me with his decision making fielding punts.Sometimes it’s ok to let the ball bounce into the end zone.This team had bad field position al day.But they were on the 1 yard line and Wilson gets called for delay of game.He also is to quick sometimes to leave the pocket.

I’m not giving up on the team but they have to play better on offense.Give the Cards credit but the offense loss this game.Defense stood up all game even giving up a contested td.These guys are elite.But RW,Bevell and Cable have some work to do.

With no running game, receivers who couldn’t get open, and poor pass protection, I guarantee Kap would dig a deeper hole for his team with some INTs, just like in his two losses here in Seattle when our D dominated the 49ers O.

Pabs, you are most certainly correct…but the fact is that Kap is playing better than Wilson is right now. Yes, SF is a better team overall, but in the future, will Wilson be a difference maker without the same defense? That’s the question to be answered before committing to him the franchise QB dollars.

Wilson is already a difference maker because his skill position players are not good. I keep expecting Gore to fall off a cliff but maybe Lynch beat him to it?

These guys get such little separation that on the little separation they get Wilson needs to be perfect. And when he isn’t, he takes the blame.

I’ll blame Wilson for one thing – he has to stop trying to be a pocket passer until he gets WRs that can separate. He needs to run for whatever yards he can if the opportunity presents itself. And maybe that will loosen up the Defense.

Gore has fallen off but he has a solid OL…Lynch has to meet the DL two yards into the backfield. That’s much of Wilson’s issue too…which is why he needs to run for yardage…not just scramble for a throw to no one.

As great as the d played, they were the reason the the hawks were even in the game, this is the 3rd time this season where they were given a lead in the last 6-7 minutes of a game and couldn’t get off the field.

Yes this was a disgusting game, but it continues to amaze me how Seahawks fans are ready to jump off the cliff after a loss. All the worst team ever rhetoric and gilded record and all this nonsense. As if a good team and a good qb have never played badly. Incredible.

Unfortunately, of all the big Seahawks boards, I’d say this one is the absolute worst after a loss.

The reason SEA’s OL appeared to pass-block “fine” is that AZ has the worst pass rush performance in the NFL. They don’t have guys named Quinn and Long, like STL does. Can this SEA team beat STL? We’ll see…

STL is scarey…they have the talent to beat us and honestly I’m starting to wonder about our staff…they’ve been out coached two of the last three weeks. Our division is tough. I can easily see us being a one and out wild card.

I have all the faith in the world that the Seahawks will win next week. Simply put, we’re just a more talented team than the Rams, we’re at home, everything to gain, and so we gotta win. In essence, it’s almost like a playoff game in that sense.

Oh and Idk what that derpy comment from someone was about the Seahawks being 4-3 against winning teams, as though that was some kind of “damning stat”. Here, let me tell you what the other top teams in the NFL’s records against winning teams are.

Denver 5-3
Niners 2-4
NO 5-4 with a loss to a sub .500 team
Panthers 4-3 also with a loss to a sub .500 team
KC 2-4

Enjoy the moment of another team’s hiccup. It’s what wannabes and losers do. SF’s best game against the Hawks C+ / B- game barely won on your home field. Good for you.

The Seahawks current disappointments are about capabilities held in restraint by an offensive coordinator with mediocrity beliefs and expectations. And no team can overcome that. But Kap being better than Wilson? Or Gore even in his best days being in the same category as Matshawn? Uh, no. That is fantasy. And wishful thinking.

Go ahead and enjoy the moment. But SF’s A+ game will lose to any unleashing of this team’s capabilities upon yours. And there is nothing Harbaugh and his players can do about that. And we all know it. Including you.

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